One of world's okayest runners…

It’s a shiny Disneyland celebration this year!

If you’re like me, you’re counting down the days until the Disneyland Half registration opens. It’s going to be a big one this year! Not only is it the 10th Anniversary of the Disneyland Half Marathon, but it’s also the 60th Birthday of Disneyland! Exciting!!!

I was lucky enough to catch the end of the 50th Anniversary celebrations back in 2006, and I remember being absolutely amazed by the fireworks show that they had specially created for the event, narrated by Julie Andrews. I was a huge Disneyland fan back then but that visit really made me fall in love with the park all over again – and I’ve been SUPER lucky to be a repeat visitor over the last 9 years (I know, not so special but when you consider that it’s a 13+ hour flight then it makes it a little more impressive).

So when I read that they were going to be live-tweeting the announcements for this years Diamond Anniversary, I was all set to tune in!! What was going to be announced? New entertainment? Updated rides? Maybe something awesome for the Disneyland Half Weekend?

First up was to do with the Castle decorations and I was excited to hear that there will be a diamond overlay on Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and even better, Carthay Circle will also be glistening with diamonds – I think it’s great that they are extending the celebrations over to Disney California Adventure, it’s going to make the whole resort uber special.

For entertainment, there’s a whole lot of new stuff!!!

Firstly, there will be a new fireworks show named Disneyland Forever which will extend throughout the park with projections, especially on Main Street USA. This looks really interesting, all concept art looks absolutely amazing and it really does look like there won’t be a bad view anywhere. Good thing too, since long gone are the days where I spend hours sitting there waiting for the fireworks! Projections on buildings can be really amazing when done well – there is a yearly event here in Sydney (Vivid Festival) where there project moving images on buildings around the CBD – one building was even turned into a cartoon metropolis, and surprisingly even on a big scale building it was completely immersive. I’m sure the Disney team have this down to a tee – maybe the best place to watch the entire event (fireworks and projections) will now be at the beginning of Main Street!

Another intriguing show that will be coming to the park is the Paint the Night event. I have vague memories as a kid of the Main Street Electrical Parade – I also had the VHS of the “Day at Disneyland” which also featured the parade on repeat, so I am happy that a 2015 updated version will be available. It’s going to be all lights, lights and lights!!! They will even pay tribute to the older Electrical Parade with a themed float. This parade has been shown at Hong Kong Disneyland and apparently you should be able to purchase wands which will interact with the parade itself – allowing wand holders to change the colour of certain sections of the parade, a.k.a painting the night!

Finally, there is an update to World Of Colour (still one of my FAVOURITE shows), where they will focus on Walt and his dream of Disneyland. I’ve managed to catch another video projection on the World of Colour fountains, they did the video intro for the Disneyland Half Welcome Event here and it was AMAZING! This is a super way to pay respects to Walt’s dream and to be able to incorporate the newer park in the celebrations.

There are no changes to Fantasmic because frankly, that show is just almost perfection..

All entertainment options begin May 22, which is unfortunately after the Tinkerbell Half Marathon Weekend, but hopefully most of the decorations will be up. The diamond decorated castle will certainly make for some awesome race photos!

It’s going to be a great trip to Disneyland come September, the only problem I see is how to fit it all in during the Disneyland Half Weekend. Don’t they know that we all have to get up early to run??

On a side note: I wonder if they will play the 60th Anniversary into the Disneyland Half medal? It would be pretty awesome to get a medal with some extra bling on it!

Get to know me!!

Hi, I'm Erin!

I love being one of the world's okayest runners. While I'm not the fastest, my aim is to get a personal best in having a great time and encouraging others to do the same! I'm also the Community Manager for BibRave - all views and opinions are mine.